Rotary valve for hydrocarbon-engines.



G. H. & w. e. BIRD.

ROTARY VALVE FOR HYDROCAR'BON ENGINES.

APPLICATION man APR. 17. 1912.

1,183,622. Patented Maylfi, 1916.

3 SHEETS-SHEET l.

G. H. & w. G. BIRD. ROTARY VALVE FOR HYDROCARBON ENGINES.

APPLICATION FILED APR-17, 1912.

Patented May16,191 6.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

G. H. 61 W. G. BIRD. ROTARY VALVE FOR HYDROCARBON ENGINES. APPLICATION FILED APR. 17. 1912.

Patented May 16, 1916.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

GEORGE E. BIRD AND WILLIAM Gr. BIRD, OF WILMETTE, IL-LIN'dIS.

ROTARY VALVE FOR I-IYDROCARBOCN' -E1\TG-I1\TES.

Specification of Letters Patent. I Patented 16, 1916.

Application filed April 17, 1912. Serial N 0. 691,301.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, Gnome H. BIRD and WILLIAM G. BIRD, both citizens of the United States, residing at No. 510 Washington avenue, Wilmette, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have jointly invented certain new and useful Improvements in Rotary Valves for Hydrocarbon-Engines, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to gas engines, one of its primary objects being to provide an engine of the multiple-cylinder type with simple, compact and efiicient mechanism for controlling the admission of the explosive mixture to the cylinders and the exhaust of the burnt gases therefrom.

More particularly, our invention aims to provide a rotary valve for each cylinder of the engine which will open quickly to admit a maximum amount of explosive mixture to the cylinder at the required time and will cut off quickly when the cylinder has been filled and will also open quickly to permit the escape of burnt gases from the cylinder and remain open a maximum period of time so that the gases may all escape before the admission of the explosive mixture.

Another object is the provision of a large admission and exhaust port which will offer minimum resistance to the admission and discharge of the explosive mixture and burnt gases.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent as the same is better understood by reference to the following description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings illustrating one preferred embodiment thereof.

Referring to the drawings-Figure l is a side elevation of a gas engine equipped with my invention; Fig. 2 is a fragmentary longitudinal sectional view showing one engine cylinder and its cooperative valve; Fig. 3 is a horizontal sectional view taken on the line 33 of Fig. 2; Figs. 4c, 5, 6'and 7 are transverse sectional views taken on the lines Fig. 8 is a view similar to Fig.2 showinga modified form of valve.

On the drawings, 11 designates the engine cylinders, 12 the jcrank casing and 13 the drive shaft, all of which maybe of any well known or preferredconstruction.

Our invention is particularly adapted for use in connection with multiple-cylinder englnes and in the present instance we have shown an engine of the il-cylinder type although it will be manifest as the invention is better understood that it is applicable to and equally efficient when used in connectlon with an engine having a greater or less number of cylinders. For cheapness in construction the cylinders are preferably cast en bloc and at their upper ends a cylindrical valve casing 14 is formed which extends transversely across a median line of each of the cylinders. This valve casing is also preferably cast en bloc with the cylinders as shown but it may be cast independently and bolted, or otherwise secured to the cylinders, if desired. The water jacket 15 which customarily surrounds the cylinders is extended upwardly to surround the valve casing and thewater is discharged from the top of the jacket through a suitable pipe 16. Each cylinder is equipped with a piston 17 and a spark plug or plugs 18 in the usual manner.

7 Communication is established between each cylinder and the valve casing 14: through elongated ports 19 formed in the ends of the cylinders and in order that a minimum amount of resistance may be offered to the passage of the explosive mixture and the burnt gases through these ports they are made comparatively large in size insure against relative annular displacement, they are cast integrally as a single unit or member and may be positioned by inserting them into oneend of the casing and may all be driven simultaneously and synchronously from a single driving mechanism.

The valves are all substantially identical in construction and proportion, conse quently a detail description of one of the valves will be sufficientfor an understanding of the present invention. The valve casing 14 is provided with a lateral port between the adjacent valves, the alternate ports being connected with an explosive mixture supply pipe 22 and an exhaust pipe 23,

respectively, through suitable branches. It will be apparent, therefore, that the valves are arranged with their supply and exhaust ends in alternation, 2'. e., the supply ends of adjacent valves are disposed next to each other and the delivery ends of adjacent valves are disposed next to each other so that each branch of the supply pipe 22 supplies explosive mixture to two valves and the central branch of the exhaust pipe 23 receives the exhaust from two valves. The exhaust from the end valves in each instance is received by an individual branch. Obviously, this arrangement of the valves might be reversed so that the supply ends of the valves would be located at the ends of the valve casing, in which instance, however, the exhaust ends would still be arranged in alternation with the supply ends, as previously indicated.

Each valve comprises a cylindrical portion 24 which is contracted at the ends of the valve to form shaft portions 25 connecting adjacent valves, a circular space or chamber being thereby provided at the ends of the valves and around the shaft portions 25 communicating with the supply and exhaust ports of the valve casing.

Assuming that the valve shown in Figs. 2 and 3 is the second valve from the lefthand end shown in Fig. 1, the port 26 will communicate with the last branch of the supply pipe 22 and the port 27 will communicate with the central branch of the exhaust pipe 23. The left-hand end of the valve shown in Figs. 2 and 3 is, therefore, the supply end and the right-hand end is the exhaust end. The interior of the cylindrical portion of the valve 24 is divided longitudinally by curved partition walls into a supply chamber 28 and an exhaust chamber 29. The supply chamber is supplied with gas from a port 26 through the ports 31 formed in the web at the end of the chamber and the burnt gases are discharged from the exhaust chamber to the port 27 through the ports 32 at the opposite end of the valve. The peripheral walls of the cylindrical valve are provided with a pair of intake ports 33 and 34 and a pair of exhaust ports 35 and 36. The ports 33 and 34 are wider than the port 19 so that the port 19 will be uncovered very quickly and will remain open and wide open for an appreciable length of time to permit the cylinder to fill with gas and will then be closed quickly at the required instant. The ports 35 and 36 are also wider than the port 19 and are of greater width than the ports 33 and 34. This construction permits the port 19 to be quickly uncovered at the exhaust period and enables it to remain open long enough for the burnt gases to escape, the exhaust chamber being cut off from the cylinder practically simultaneously with the admission of the explosive mixture from the port 33 or 34, as the case may be. It will be observed that the ports 33 and 34 are located rearwardly of the exhaust ports 35 and 36 a distance substantially equal to the width of the port 19, thus enabling the admission to the cylinder to take place immediately after the exhaust is cut off when the valve is rotating in a clockwise direction, viewing Figs. 4 to 7, inclusive.

The partition walls between the supply and exhaust chambers terminate at opposite ends of the cylinder in the peripheral walls of the valve. The walls 38 and 39, viewing Fig. 2, extend inwardly from the supply end of the valve and unite at 41 practically in the center of the valve. The wall 38, which is of curved formation as shown, forms a deflector over the port 36 at the closed end of the exhaust chamber and the wall 39 forms a similar deflector over the port 35 so that the exhaust gases from the engine cylinder are deflected toward the open discharge end of the valve where they escape through the ports 32. The walls 4:2 and 43 curve inwardly from the exhaust end of the cylinder and also unite at 41 in the center of the cylinder so that the wall 4:2 forms a curved deflector over the port 34 at the closed end of the supply chamber and the wall 43 forms a similar deflector over the port 33. It will thus be observed that the explosive mixture delivered to the open end of the supply chamber is deflected by the walls 42 and 43 into the cylinder through the port 19 and that the exhaust gases from the cylinder are deflected by the walls 38 or 39 toward the exhaust end of the valve. 1

The supply chamber and the exhaust chamber are of substantially equal length, the supply chamber merging. from a circular shape at the open end of the valve into two gradually diminishing branches or pockets over the ports 33 and 34 while the exhaust chamber merges from a substantially circular opening at the discharge end of the valve into a pair of gradually diminishing pockets over the exhaust ports 35 and 36. The full length of the valve is thereby utilized for both supply and exhaust purposes with the result that the port 19 in the cylinder may be of maximum length to offer the minimum resistance to the passage of the gases therethrough. In actual practice the port 19 is preferably made of a length substantially equal to the, length of the diameter of the cylinder.

In Fig. 8 a slightly different construction is shown in which the valve ends, instead of being reduced to form, a solid shaft section between the valves, are extended in cylindrical form, the several valves being made in one continuous cylinder. For purposes of admission and exhaust the cylindrical portions. between the valves are provided with a plurality of elongated ports 26 and 27 adapted to register at the proper times upon rotation of the valves with the inlet and outlet ports 26 and 27,. respectively.

The valve described is designed to operate on a 4-cylinder engine and makes one complete revolution to two complete cycles of the engine, or, in other words, four revolutions of the engine shaft. The end of the valve shaft is preferably equipped with a sprocket Wheel 44: alined with a driving sprocket wheel 45 on the engine shaft, a sprocket chain 46 being trained over the alined wheels to rotate the valves at the desired speed. The timing of the valves and the position and size of the various ports may be varied considerably and the valves may be constructed to rotate once to two, four, six, eight, or any other desired number of revolutions of the engine shaft. The valves may be made tapering in form instead of uniform diameter from end to end, if preferred, in which instance the valve casing would be correspondingly tapered, and preferably made in sections to permit the valves to be positioned therein. Any suitable provision may be made for furnishing the valves with an adequate supply of lubricant.

It will be understood that the structural details shown and described are capable of considerable variation and modification within the scope of our invention.

We claim:

1. In a gas engine, the combination of a valve casing provided with a longitudinallyextending port through which communication may be established with an engine cylinder, and a cylindrical valve rotatably mounted in said casing, said valve being divided by partition walls into an inlet chamber and an exhaust chamber and being provided with ports adapted to register with the port in said casing, the sides of said ports in the valve converging toward the casing and the sides of the port in the casing diverging from the valve.

2. In a gas engine, the combination of a plurality of cylinders, a cylindrical valve casing mounted on said cylinders, diametrically disposed ports in the ends of said cylinders communicating with said valve casing Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the and of a length substantially equal to the diameter of said cylinders, and a plurality of ooaxially disposed integrally formed valves rotatably mounted in said casing, each of said valves being divided by partition walls formed integrally therewith into inlet and exhaust chambers, the corresponding chambers of adjacent valves being disposed end to end and having openings communicating with a common chamber therebetween.

3. In a gas engine, the combination of a plurality of cylinders, a cylindrical valve casing mounted on said cylinders, a valve member rotatably mounted in said casing and provided opposite each cylinder with an integrally formed partition wall dividin said valve member into exhaust and inlet chambers, the portions of the valve member intermediate adj acent cylinders being reduced in cross-sectional area to provide exhaust and inlet chambers between the casing and valve member, and separate ports providing communication between each of said first-mew tioned exhaust and inlet chambers and a corresponding adjacent chamber between the casing and the valve member.

4. In a gas engine, the combination of a plurality of cylinders, a valve casing disposed adjacent an end of said cylinders, a diametrically disposed port in the end of each of said cylinders communicating with said valve casing and of a length substantially equal to the diameter of the engine cylinder, a valve member rotatably mounted in said casing, said'valve member being provided opposite each cylinder with integrally formed partition walls dividing said member into internal exhaust and inlet chambers, the portions of the valve member between said cylinders being reduced intermediate adjacent cylinders to provide exhaust and inlet chambers externally of the valve member, the last mentioned exhaust and inlet chambers being alternately arranged, and separate ports connecting each of the internal exhaust and inlet chambers with an external exhaust or inlet chamber.

WM. H. Biin'r, M. A. Kinnm.

Commissioner of Iatents,

Washington, D. G. 

